cross section

1[countable,uncountable]what you see when you cut through the middle of something so that you can see the different layers it is made of; a drawing of this viewa diagram representing a cross section of the human eyethe human eye in cross section

2[countable,usually singular]a group of people or things that are typical of a larger groupa representative cross section of societya wide cross section of the populationa broad cross section of opinion